Friday I volunteered to help Maddie's class with pumpkin carving. Now you have to understand that in Cobb County they are obsessed with squeezing learning into every last second of the day and so the only "party" they can have is a "Winter" party (can't call it Christmas because some people find that offensive)and so all of the other holiday celebrations have to have learning attached to them. So for Friday's Halloween celebration, the kid's measured pumpkins (height, weight, inches around) and estimated how many pumpkin seeds were inside their pumpkin and then counted the seeds out by 10's for their math lesson. I love kids at this age. First graders are a funny lot, they will tell you all kinds of things and repetitively call you "Maddie's Mom" when they want to get your attention. I didn't tell Maddie I was coming so the look on her face when I walked through the door was priceless.
Maddie digging out the "guts" of her pumpkin. She laughed every time someone said "guts."
Maddie's teacher, Ms. Rogers
The pumpkin seeds she was supposed to count. We counted to 100 and then stopped.
Maddie and her friend, Caleb
Maddie and her kindergarten buddy, Nicholas
Maddie and friends
Every year in my mind I can picture the perfect fall day. Taking a leisurely drive, stopping at a little pumpkin patch and picking a pumpkin. My dream life rarely matches up to reality and it was no different in this case. Every free minute we had, it rained. So......we bought our pumpkins at Lowe's. Not much atmosphere but then again they only cost me 3.00 a piece which was a steal.
I figured that they would look lovely on our porch for a few weeks and then we would carve them a week or two before Halloween and put candles in them. Wrong again. They actually sat there until this afternoon, Halloween, and while we did carve then by the end it was raining enough and we were not going to be home that the whole candle thing was a moot point.
Let the carving commence
Hard at Work
Maddie and I's haunted house. It kind of looks like one, doesn't it?
Abby's face came complete with eyelashes
Destiny and her face. She also carved "Boo" into the side.
I grew up in Pennsylvania. In Pa. trick or treating was on a night that your community specified and then I moved to the South. Bud laughed at me when I asked him how we would know when Trick or Treating was. "Why it's on Halloween of course." "Well, how do you know what time?" "You start just past dark and go in around 9." Apparently everyone in the South knows the rules. Everyone but me.
The girls have been talking about their Halloween costumes for the last six months. They poured over the catalogs that came, visited the costume section at every store we went into. Maddie decided very quickly that she would be an "80's girl." It took Abby a little bit longer before she decided on a "Disco Dolly" costume (I think the deciding factor was the white go-go boots). A lot of Aqua Net, some blue eyeshadow, black eyeliner and pink lipstick and we were good to go.
Abby, our "Disco Dolly"
Maddie, my "80's girl"
Hamming it up
For the last two years we have stayed in our neighborhood to Trick or Treat. It really hasn't matched up to our past experiences trick or treating on a military base. Here very few of our neighbors participate and there really isn't a sense of community. There are tons of hills and driveways which make it a long haul between houses with actual lights on not just for the kids but for the parents too! One of our very good friends graciously invited us to their Halloween night celebration. Pizza and cookies and cake and drinks and then Trick or Treating in their kid friendly neighborhood with houses close together and lots of participation. It didn't take much arm twisting on their part to make us come. And don't worry, we took the candy we would have given out over to their house.
All of the kids around the table
Cheese
Abby and her cheer friend, Rachael
Maddie and her friends, Emma and Adrianna
Lizzie Grace enjoying a black iced cookie
The gang at the Spencer's for Trick or Treat 2009. You will notice that Destiny is in the pictures, she decided to go as a soccer player instead of spending her money for a costume this year.
My Trick or Treaters Last Year, 2008
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Thank you for leaving that comment on my blog! I was hoping what you said was how it would turn out, but now they are thinking it might be in my blood already. We won't know for sure until Monday so please keep me in your prayers. Something got overlooked in my pathology report and they are double checking it today.
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